Education Week - May 9, 2018 - 19

ESSA Fueling Improvement
Approaches
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17

in part by using data to pinpoint the
root causes of schools' lack of progress,
according to the DCQ's forthcoming
analysis.

Revising ESSA plans
States are applying the concept of
"continuous improvement" to ESSA
plans themselves. For some, that
means continually reaching out to
the education community to see how
the plan is playing out in practice. For
instance, New Mexico's Ruszkowski
conducted a "New Mexico Rising"
tour of the state prior to the submission of its ESSA plan, to get feedback from educators on the ground.
After the plan was implemented, he
launched a sequel: the "New Mexico
Rising Returns" tour, to explain
where the state landed. Ruszkowski
also visited every school in the state
that got an A rating, and got educators' takes on state and federal policy,
including ESSA.
A number of states also plan to go
back and look at data to see how their
new ESSA accountability systems
are playing out in practice. Thirtyone states mentioned this strategy
in their plans, although most did not
describe their plans in detail, DQC
found.
For instance, ESSA requires states
to look beyond test scores in gauging student achievement. Vermont is
planning to take a hard look at how
well the four school-quality indicators
that it chose capture student achievement. The state wants to consider science, physical education, and two different college- and career-readiness
indicators, much of which hasn't been
measured in the state before.
Already, the state is aware that
one of its metrics-tracking workforce and postsecondary outcomes for
its graduates-may be problematic,
since the state's current system may
not capture whether a student has enrolled in college in nearby Canada or
found work outside the state.
"We may bring in some more" indicators, said Patrick Halladay, an education project manager for the state
education agency. "We may get rid of
some."
Forty states said they would consider revisiting their goals for student
achievement, but only two provided
details on this score, according to
DQC's analysis. For instance, New
York is planning to re-adjust its longterm goals for student achievement
each year, setting a new endpoint,
so that the goals always cover a fiveyear period. That way the goals can
be informed by student achievement
over time.
Some states are also planning to
keep tabs on the measures they use
to gauge school performance.
For instance, Rhode Island is rating its schools on a five-star system.
The state is planning to randomly
visit schools at different levels to see
whether it is accurate.
Such accountablity tweaks are
made possible by the flexibility in the
law.

WHAT DO
YOU THINK?

"States get a lot more freedom
under ESSA and a lot of them are
using that to say we need to really
commit to continuous improvement,"
Gordon said.

Write a letter to the editor!
Send to: ewletter@epe.org

Coverage of continuous-improvement
strategies in education is supported in part
by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation at www.gatesfoundation.
org. Education Week retains sole editorial
control over the content of this coverage.

Letters should be as brief as possible,
with a maximum length of 300 words.

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Education Week - May 9, 2018

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